The Scotland Yard Officer accused of raping a woman here three years ago has arrived in Antigua after a successful extradition request for him.
PC Lee Martin-Cramp, 25, was flown to Antigua and arrived Sunday at the V.C. Bird International Airport. He arrived on a British Airways flight from London.
He is accused of raping a foreign student while attending a family wedding three years ago.
The Scotland Yard officer tried to block the move claiming being detained in the island’s notorious 18th century prison would be inhumane.
But in a legal first, the Antiguan authorities convinced a London judge to sign off his extradition with an extraordinary accommodation deal.
They have agreed to house Martin-Cramp on a former US airbase with air-conditioning, a fridge and an en-suite bathroom.
The set-up will be a far cry from the squalid interior of 1735, Antigua and Barbuda’s national prison, named after the year it was built.
Its harsh conditions, appalling overcrowding and corruption among guards has drawn criticism from the United Nations and US State Department.
Martin-Cramp joined the Metropolit
an Police in 2014 and was posted to the Wanted Offenders Unit in Wimbledon, south east London.
Police on the island said a foreign student based on the island came forward to claim she had been raped during his stay.
Before they could arrest Martin-Cramp he left the island and the authorities began the lengthy legal proceedings to secure his return.
According to documents released by Westminster Magistrates’ Court, Martin-Cramp’s lawyers said he could not be extradited because of the prison conditions.
In February 2017 the country’s chief magistrate Emma Arbuthnot agreed, saying they were “not appropriate” for a suspect who may be held for a “lengthy period of time.”
But during a hearing this summer she reversed her decision after receiving assurances from Antigua’s attorney general.
“They put forward a room on a former US airbase which included air conditioning, a fridge, and an en suite bathroom,’ she wrote in a ruling. ‘The conditions were satisfactory, to say the least.”
